


Adventures in Aegis Terra

by Maerad_de_Pelyn



Series: Adventures in Aegis Terra [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Boats and Ships, Epic Battles, F/M, Fire, Forests, Islands, Magic, Missions, Pirates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 04:47:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16612193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maerad_de_Pelyn/pseuds/Maerad_de_Pelyn
Summary: Cidran Valentine, a blade-singing half-elf pirate encounters a fiery spirited human cleric in the midst of a raid upon a merchant ship. When he decides to take her captive, adventure brews.The two of them are Shanghai'd with a goliath barbarian on a quest to seek out the well-guarded pirate king and disauade her of her evil plan to raise the unwilling dead.





	1. Pirate's Treasure

**Author's Note:**

> I've never published my fics before, so any positive criticisms and pieces of advice may be applied. This is the first of a few summaries of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign I've been playing. After a while the summaries will come to a point at which private role-playing between Cid and Mae developed from one scene or another. Those have been in story form for longer, rather than in messenger format, and will be separate stories within this series.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cidran Valentine first meets Maerad de Pelyn in combat. They fight earnestly, and they fight well. Regardless, Cidran finds he is infatuated.

It hadn't been about her. The boarding of the ship had been for the sake of the hidden cargo - the valuable reason a captain would be persuaded to take "trading commodities" across the ocean at the end of trade season. He'd cut it close based on the weather predictions made on the Laughing Crown, but for such a prize they were willing to cut it close as well.

The Crown had navigated its way to its target through thick morning mists by Sonja Walls' directions, made with the aid of an enchanted spyglass. Their presence was at last made clear as they pulled up alongside the Dancing Thorn by a firebolt directed to the sails of the unfortunate ship. A magical retaliation was attempted, but cancelled out by Shortround's counter spell. Cidran's role would be to prevent further targets of their ship by distracting the defending mage.

He and the fighters of the privateers boarded the unsuspecting ship with a loud cry and the beginnings of a sea shanty.

Magically bolstered by the music, Cidran rushed to combat, summoning apparitions of himself, and setting eyes on the fiery-haired woman that stood out from the defenders by being fully armed and ready for combat.

He fired magic missiles at her, the three arcane bolts guaranteed to hit her, and the three mirror images casting illusory bolts as well to maintain the illusion. She took the hits, and retaliated with three burning bolts that missed his true form, but managed to hit and dispel one of the illusions.

He and his two remaining forms crowded her, and he attempted to rile her by commenting fearlessly on her presence on the ship - flirting with her.

She wasn't interested. Or at least that's the impression Cid got when she took a step back, held forth her hands, and summoned a cone of fire that burned him and consumed his remaining images. He frowned, and picked back up the tune of the shanty the crew had maintained, dancing toward the lass with his rapier ready.

They exchanged blows of mace and sword, his strikes deflected by chain mail and shield, and hers dodged by his quick stepping in time to the song. A young man came unarmed in a crazed attempt to aid her, and while she was startled Cid managed to land a blow - a cut on her arm. From her wound, Cid summoned a green flame that struck out at the young man, bringing him to the ground in panic.

The spirited woman cursed mildly and healed the interloper rather than focus her attacks on her antagonist, then interposed herself between the two. Cidran evaluated her for a long moment, impressed by her fearlessness and compassion. He withheld any further attacks, and surveyed the privateers' progress in taking the ship. Seeing their victory was at hand, he looked back to the woman and advised her to aid her captain who was looking close to death at the hands of the pirate captain.

The woman looked at Cid suspiciously, then looked about as well, seeing that the fire from the sails and from her magic had spread across the deck, and seeing the obvious outcome of victory for the crew that had been ready for this battle.

She cast a healing word to her captain so he wouldn't die of blood loss, but then was greatly upset that from his losing position, he attacked the pirate captain who was offering to spare his life. Cidran rushed to Sonja's aid, deflecting the woman's startled attack with an arcane shield as it nearly struck him. Sonja kicked the captain down the stairs to the deck, and announced the pirates' victory.

 

Cidran stayed beside Sonja, but observed the red-haired warrior seeing to the wounds of the injured - her crew and his, with no discrimination. Having a quick word with Sonja, when the hidden cargo had been acquired, Cid had persuaded her to take the cleric along as well.


	2. One and One Becomes Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maerad grows accustomed to life aboard Captain Sonja Wall's ship, the Dancing Thorn. Cidran continues to be fascinated with the cleric, and when she is given leave to go ashore he accompanies her.

It had been a week since Cidran had suggested to Captain Sonja Wall that the flame-haired cleric of Helm be brought on board the Laughing Crown. She cared about people, and hadn't discriminated against pirates after the conflict had been resolved when she had healing magic to offer.

She had been bound and brigged while her fate was discussed. Shortround was to oversee her activity on board until she was determined trustworthy by Sonja - if only because Shortround could cancel any magics she could foolishly summon to harm the crew.

Shortround's report of her was favorable, though, as Cidran had expected. She had quietly accepted her bondage, and when freed was eager to heal what injuries remained across the span of days following combat. Cidran had been so fortunate as to have his burns healed in a moment after her prayers, rather than spend a week or two with blisters and raw skin.

She looked at him curiously, but never spoke to him except in brief answers to what he asked. Convinced she hated him, Cid kept his distance from the cleric named Maerad.

A storm brewed earlier than had been predicted for the end of trade sailing. All hands were occupied with seeing the the ship's safety as they navigated the stormy waters. When two beasts were seen in battle in the heart of the storm, the attitude on board shifted - they would have to survive the storm without drawing the attention of a sea monster.

In case of battle, all able hands were equipped with weapons and armor. Maerad was finally granted her mace, shield, and armor again. Cid took the time to question her sanity should she go overboard in medium grade armor, but she insisted Helm would protect her and the armor would serve her well should they meet anything in combat. Saying a quick prayer to the gods of fortune and the sea, Cid set himself to his task as navigator, and spent the evening calling headings to those steering the ship to best cross waves and skirt the ongoing battle.

The ship made port the second day after the storm. Maerad had been required to return her arms to the ship, and was withheld from visiting the port. She was, however, welcomed by the number of women on board to join them in the waters for their turn of bathing. Assured that the men were not welcome to spy on them, Maerad accepted the invitation.

Still fascinated by the fiery-haired cleric, Cidran struck a bargain with one of the women to take her position and her visage to serve as a guard to the bathing area. He only caught a glimpse of Maerad past the towel she unsurely clutched to herself in the midst of nude women, but it was enough to assure him that beneath the steel-hard resolve and steady determination, Maerad was a fair-skinned, soft-curved woman.

Maintaining his distance, Cidran watched Maerad bloom in the welcoming atmosphere of Captain Wall's pirate crew. She had been useful as a healer, was willing as a fighter, and had proven through discipline that she would make a capable privateer under Sonja's instruction. After a month of sailing with the Crown, she was finally given leave to go to port.

Cidran had volunteered to keep an eye on her, and he escorted her to the bar of the port town, stopping first at the small shop next door. Maerad asked if she could spend what money she'd had on her when taken aboard the Crown, and Cid gave her a few extra coins for being more honest than he'd expected about how much she'd originally had. They bought a few things there, but the real show of the evening was when they went next door and witnessed a bar fight.

Cid found them some seats, Maerad bet what silver she had left on the goliath, and they both got some drinks and watched the show. When the goliath won, several halflings challenged him for beating their friend. Maerad warded him from their aggression, and continued betting on his victory. Cid saw to acquiring more drinks, and happened upon two mysterious figures across the room.

When the fight was resolved in favor of the goliath, and the bar closed for having run out of drinks, the two figures asked Cid and the fighter for their help. Cid brought Maerad along since the rest of the crew had left, and the three of them went through narrow tunnels to meet with Tevias, a pirate captain with an errand for which the three were needed.

They accepted the mission, and a toast was drunk in which the three adventurers were drugged and Shanghai'd on an adventure they'd agreed to.


	3. Finders Keepers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strong, Cidran, and Maerad begin their mission to seek the Pirate King and persuade her to end her foolhardy attempts to resurrect a friend by non-divine soul-corrupting means.

After a month of drugged captivity on Tevias' ship, the trio had been brought to their destination. Their bindings were loosed, and Maerad was granted her shield while Tevias disclosed his task for them. The ship was under attack by a kraken, and was soon torn asunder, but Tevias warded the three from immediate peril by enclosing them in an arcane shield.

After drifting to shore, and reawakening from the various stages of concussions they'd received in the midst of Tevias' ship breaking down around them, the trio navigated the beach and found the remnants of the wreckage washed up by the tide.

They collected their possessions and what other sufficiently helpful items that could be found in the captain's quarters, and then made their way to the true island from the beach shoal they'd washed up on.

Across the calm bay they encountered a man who offered to lead them to the fortress where they could begin their conquest of the island. Their mission was to find the pirate king and to insist that she let the dead rest in peace, rather than seek their return at the cost of her sanity.

The man did lead them to the fortress, but he turned out to be no ally, and upon reaching the fortress he alerted the soldiers there.

Maerad, Cidran, and Strong (as the Goliath had introduced himself) set to work clearing the fortress of oozes and vagabonds alike. Rudder, a fine weapons smith, was spared, and given leave to escape with his things in hope of returning to the mainland and starting a shop.

The trio eventually found an arcane key to a thrice-locked door. Beyond it they challenged the traitorous aid, defeating him and acquiring a wand of magic missiles.

They pressed on and discovered Captain Ugabark and his more capable fighters he kept on hand (the best fighters supposedly being employed at the wall bisecting the crescent-shaped island). Refusing his offers of employment, they initiated combat. Maerad incinerated the fighters with a flaming sphere, Cidran made quick work of the rest of them with his scimitars. Strong held Ugabark's attention until Maerad became a target for aggravating him with additional attacks and healing abilities.

It was a close call even with the blinding light of Helm used to ward her. Ugabark nearly cut Maerad down before Cidran joined in the fight, his sea shanty dying on his lips as he focused entirely on keeping Maerad alive.

Strong, Cid, and Maerad spent the night in the keep, contemplating how they would continue on across the island to find the Pirate King.


	4. A Wall for a Wall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After defeating Ugabark's keep, Strong, Cid, and Maerad have to cross the island to continue their assignment. Unfortunately, between them and their destination is a well-fortified wall across the breadth of the island.

The evening was spent in the keep in case word might spread that the three had come to the island and begun wreaking havoc. After the night's rest they went to begin crossing the island and discovered that the Dancing Thorn had come ashore to the island.

Captain Sonja Wall was consulted, and she advised the trio on a plan to remove the leader from the wall, and attempt to get past the trained soldiers within it. The wall had been a looming obstacle, so the three agreed to Sonja's plan, and they made their way to the ramshackle buildings beside a grand wall crossing the girth of the crescent island.

Conspiring with the taproom's barkeep to interfere with the schedule of the wall's commanding officer, they made their plans and quickly put them to action. He took the bait, and was easily extracted from his place of authority. Thus the invasion of the wall was initiated.

Weapons were concealed on the persons of Strong, Cid, and Maerad, and they were led into the interior of the wall with the appearances of being bound. Several check points were passed before suspicions were aroused and the scramble began for the trio to hurriedly attempt to navigate the halls of the wall and make their way to an exit to the other side.

A bit of cat-and-mouse took place while they followed Sonja's not-too-clear map (it didn't help that it was drawn with blood), but despite a few instances of combat, the three did make it to their destination. They cleared the final room of soldiers, and pressed onward to escape their pursuers. The door led them outside (to their surprise since they'd gotten turned around) into a menacing wood. Even with certain death hot on their heels, the oppression of the dark forest ahead terrified Cidran enough that he began to scramble back to the door...


	5. Into the Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strong, Cidran, and Maerad set forth into the haunted woods beyond the wall, intent on their goal to find the Pirate King and dissuade her of her evil agenda to raise the unwilling dead. The forest nearly proves too much for everyone's psyches.

Despite Cidran's attempts to flee the haunted forest and return to the immediate danger of pursuing soldiers, Strong and Maerad struck him to knock him unconscious and bring him along. He struggled even as he rested, carried by Strong.

After some untracked distance into the woods, Strong and Maerad halted their advance. Maerad observed that the area was pocked with tombstones, and curiously read the names... She stopped reading any more when one seemed to be her own name momentarily before subtly adjusting to be an unfamiliar one.

After lying Cidran down, Strong determined he would climb a tree to gain a vantage point and determine if they were on the right track. As he climbed, he and Maerad perceived malicious behavior from the tree. It was perhaps hallucinatory, but when Maerad retaliated against the tree's attempt to hold Strong in place with a casting of a fiery spell, it withdrew and he fell.

Strong fell unconscious due to the blow of falling, and Maerad nervously blessed the three of them, began to pray to Helm on the behalf of her companions, and waited unsure of what else she could do while neither was waking up.

 

Cidran and Strong each found himself in a strange world that had a nightmarish quality to it. They managed to encounter each other, but when they moved to join forces against what threatened them, Cidran awoke from the nightmare. His form changed in the nightmare world and Strong found himself joined by a foe.

Strong fought valiantly, and was finally aided in his growing desperation by a figure of light incarnate armed with iconography like Maerad bore - a gauntlet with an open eye on it. Strong soon awoke.

In the brilliant flash of light that accompanied Helm's aid, the forest lost some of its threatening quality, and the path became clear with the cove visible beyond the trees.

They finally came to the edge of the forest on the far side of the island. Before them was an entrance that did not bode well. Warnings in numerous languages and glyphs of arcane warding graffitied the perimeter of the door with malicious intent toward trespassers.

The trio, feeling exhausted from fighting through the wall and narrowly escaping the darkness of the haunted woods, agreed to bypass the wards tomorrow. The evening would instead be spent up a nearby cliff (thanks to Strong's climbing skills, the use of a rope for Cid, and a piggy-back ride up for Maerad due to how weak she was feeling).


	6. The Pirate King's Lair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After making their way across the island of Lint Koho, Strong, Cidran, and Maerad finally enter the dungeons of Beltorin the Pirate King. She has many nasty surprises awaiting their intrusion, and should they make it to the end they may still have to fight her.

Morning came, and the three descended down the cliff without harm. They entered through the entrance marked clearly with signs objecting to trespassers. They came to an antechamber and were addressed by the voice of the Pirate King through a bat-sized bat-winged homunculus creature. A half-hearted shot was made at it, but the shot flew wide so instead they passed under it and through the door into what was the Pirate King's lair.

Rooms and antechambers were investigated cautiously at first, but the group soon became impatient with Beltorin as she continued addressing them from the tailing homunculus. Strong grew impulsive, and treasure-greedy when he heard a great treasure was at the bottom of a pool. He deployed a magical cap of water-breathing and swam down to the chest. He was quickly followed by Maerad and Cidran, the former having quaffed a potion for the same effect and the latter holding his breath.

Cidran caught up with Strong as he opened the chest deep within the pool. The water shifted strongly around them, but Strong disregarded the pending sense of danger and began dragging the gold-laden box toward the distant surface. Cidran helped him, but as they made progress the water grew aggressive. They each in turn found themselves immobilized. A scuffle ensued, and Maerad catching up (slow due to her scale mail weighing her down) found her friends struggling against some unseen foe.

She interfered with a spell, and the animated water's focus shifted to her. Strong continued pulling on his chest of gold. Cid, however, could see Maerad not only immobilized, but beginning to be crushed - her armor weakened by an earlier encounter with a corrosive slime began to buckle against her.

Cidran shot forward toward Maerad and cast his own spell to dispel the water which held her in place. As she was released, he grabbed her and aided her in surfacing and escaping the water and whatever invisible monster was hindering them.

Strong, no longer aided in his attempts to lug the chest up, acknowledged the present danger with no other targets and swam to the surface. It nearly caught Strong, but he broke free from its grasp due to his fighting skills, and joined Maerad and Cid on the shore (though with less relief and more depression about leaving the treasure behind).

After Maerad got her armor off, Strong helped her bend it back into shape. While Strong was smoothing out the kinks, Cid offered to cast a mage armor spell on Maerad, like he'd done in Ugabark's keep after the slime had damaged her armor. She politely declined, under the impression that she had taken a lot of hits from their final battle with Ugabark because she hadn't been accustomed to weightless armor.

After the three were ready to resume their dungeon-crawl hunt for Beltorin, Strong, still upset about his abandoned treasure chest beneath the treacherous waters, returned to a previously untouched chest in hopes of acquiring some loot as compensation. The other two caught up with him just in time to see the chest animate under his touch. The three quickly attacked it, hoping its toothy maw would not greatly harm Strong. When the monstrosity had gone still in death, Strong threw back its "lid" and discovered a potion within. Although berated by his allies, he tucked the potion away with some delight and they moved on into other chambers.

They discovered a trapped brass dragon whose condition was poor - he was kept alive but immobilized in a too-small cage for malicious scientific purposes. Unable to find a way to release him, the trio promised to return shortly, and pressed on.

The scientist's laboratory was found next. Inside were several strange tubes containing beings - dead, alive, humanoid, monstrosity... And within one was the worse-for-wear figure of Rudder the blacksmith they had met and released from Ugabark's keep. It took a bit of effort, but they freed him. They also acquired notes from the far side of the lair after defeating a troll.

Beltorin began to mock their slow progress, but after taking Rudder to attempt to release Perlain from his close captivity, the trio finally approached the sole remaining door of the dungeon.

A wave of despair washed over them with a gut-wrenching feeling of dread, but they entered the room and came face to face with Beltorin, her mad scientist, and a floor littered with the bones of countless dead.


	7. Fight or Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally coming face-to-face with Beltorin, having been sent by Captains Tevias and Wall to stop her from unleashing dark powers to resurrect her deceased lover... Strong, Cidran, and Maerad have mixed results.

Beltorin and her dark wizard Bleakly proved to be an undesirable set of foes for Strong, Cidran, and Maerad. After permitting a monologue from Beltorin, the trio told her that if she would not refrain from practicing dark magics to recover her dead then they would interfere and stop her. They found in their charge that both of the opponents wielded access to dark magics. Strong's will was usurped and his weapons were aimed at Cidran, who went unharmed only thanks to his shanty-boosted agility. Maerad interposed herself between Beltorin and the door, targeting her with her mace and Bleakly with her ball of fire.

It took some effort, but finally both villains were knocked unconscious. Cidran, moved by having been similarly motivated the loss of a loved one to extreme measures attempting to revive her, begged Maerad to spare Beltorin. Impressed by his generous grace toward an opponent, Maerad agreed and spared Beltorin from death with a touch of divine magic.

Strong, in the meantime, had gone hunting for loot. His finds weren't much, but in his return to the room a dark spirit escaped him and entered a menacing portal the group had been unsurely avoiding. Awful sounds commenced and a looming demonic figure began squeezing its way through the hole, accompanied by flows of lava.

Making haste, Maerad, Cidran, and Strong fled the final chamber of Beltorin's lair with Beltorin over Strong's capable shoulder. Maerad diverged from the path, followed closely by Cid who quickly outpaced her, to urge Rudder and Perlain to escape.

Fortunately Rudder had made some progress breaking some bars free from Perlain's awful cage. However, though Perlain made it through it crippled his wings tearing through the still unreasonably small openings of the cage and the following doors and hallways. Regardless, everyone made it out into the open before the lava had caught up. The island before them seemed changed - that an overbearing dark presence had been removed from the island... if only to materialize as a single creature behind them.

As they fled into the woods, they witnessed the mountain's entrance to Beltorin's lair seal up from the flood of lava, but they pressed on - to warn the pirates of the danger summoned, and to deliver the pirate king to the fate that awaited her.


	8. Get Off The Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beltorin faces the votes of the pirate council, and the heroic trio is sent back home.

Beltorin's captivity was unpleasant for all parties. Captain Sonja Wall would rather the trio had finished her off, but because Beltorin had been spared she would have to be deposed politically from her position as pirate king in a few days when the pirate council would meet.

Eager to fix what they saw as their fault, Cidran, Maerad, and Strong met with captains of various crews the morning of the conveniently scheduled annual council meeting. They had various results of their conversations due to the diversity of captains' background, race, and mindset.

The council met at noon that day. The captains put in their votes for the deposing of one king and electing of another: there was enough of a majority that Beltorin was impeached and just enough votes that Captain Sonja Wall was elected king.

Her first edict was to banish Beltorin. Beltorin was given leave to select a ship and crew to take her wherever she most desired to go. She selected a Tabaxi captain that Maerad had enjoyed speaking with for the majority of the morning, and the ship of a dragonborn captain whose dark interest in Maerad had been prevented from developing into a war of deities by the carnivorous intervention of Perlain. 

Everyone watched her leave, though she had final words with Strong in his father's voice. The meeting continued without the missing parties, and eventually was concluded. Maerad, Cid, and Strong were given several travel options - two of which would take them to their home continent. They found the ship to Ferah (south of Corinthia (Cid and Maerad's home country) and Odyncia (Strong's home country further north)) to be most agreeable, and prepared for a ten-day venture.

Maerad took care of helping Perlain recover from the worst of his torture. Strong saw to introducing Johnson (discovered among the crew of the Dancing Thorn) to the doctrine of whores. Strong also set to finding Ugabark's collection of platinum, but lost it to Shortround in a few games of cards.

Cidran observed the goings-on with an affected mood that one night led to him drinking with Strong and then somehow finding Maerad. He drunkenly mistook her for a story-book character, and even accepted that he was another. When she tried to take him down from the roof to the bed chambers he introduced her to a spell called Feather Fall by sending her on a slowed fall to the floor below. Having not been warned, and thus frightened as she fell (albeit slowly), Maerad's response when Cid had joined her on the ground was a slap and a quick march away.

When the ship they'd decided on set sail, they all found they were to have a work-free trip, so they set their focus on keeping busy on board doing other things... But after two days the trip had become utterly boring for all of them.


End file.
